Nearly 20 years ago, Bang and coworkers1
first suggested that the low mortality rate from coronary heart disease among
Greenland Eskimos compared with Danes may be due to their high consumption
of seafood. Five years later, in a prospective cohort study, Kromhout et al2 showed that consumption of fish once or twice a week
was associated with a 50% reduction in coronary heart disease mortality. Since
that time, the majority (but not all) of 14 additional cohort studies that
have been published have shown a protective effect from the consumption of
a small amount of fish.3 The controversy surrounding
the association between fish consumption and coronary heart disease was enhanced
by the publication of negative results from 2 large cohort studies from the
United States4,5 and the inconsistent
findings from 3 other studies.6- 8